Reed Sorenson and the No. 32 Dollar General team rallied on Saturday night to finish sixth in the STP 300 at Chicagoland Speedway. Qualifying was rained out again for the fourth time in the past five weeks, which put Sorenson seventh on the starting grid based on practice speeds. Even though Sorenson struggled with a loose-handling race car most of the evening, the team never gave up and continued to make adjustments, with crew chief Trent Owens making a key pit strategy call in the closing laps to bring home Sorenson’s tenth top-10 of 2011. With his sixth-place finish, Sorenson overtook the NASCAR Nationwide Series point lead by two points. Turner Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier won the event for his first win of the season, and TMS’s second.
Because of the rain that had moved through the area during the afternoon, NASCAR mandated a competition caution at lap 25. When it was shown, Sorenson had moved up one spot to sixth from his seventh-place starting spot and radioed to the Dollar General team that he was lacking rear grip. Owens called for air pressure and track bar adjustments along with four tires and fuel. Sorenson took the restart in the ninth spot. Unfortunately, the adjustments did not prove helpful as Sorenson began to drop back slightly. When the caution flag waved again at lap 61, Sorenson came down pit road in the 10th position and the Dollar General team went to work, making numerous adjustments to try and diagnose the cause of the loose-handling condition Sorenson was reporting. He restarted 16th on lap 66.
Sorenson continued to race in the top-15 through the half-way point of the 200-lap event. When the final caution flag was shown to the field on lap 139, Sorenson had moved into the ninth spot. As the adjustments on the previous stop had helped the handling on Sorenson’s car slightly, Owens called for more of the same- a wedge adjustment with fuel only. Looking to gain track position with the short stop, the team hoped for a late-race caution for their final set of tires. When asked if the car had enough fuel to make it to the end, Owens replied with confidence. Sorenson took the lap-143 restart in fifth.
As Sorenson had not taken tires on the previous stop, he fell back to ninth on lap 150. Determined to hold on to a top-10 finish, he charged forward. With Sorenson spending most of the final quarter of the event racing hard with the No. 18 of Kelly Bires, Owens told his driver to start conserving fuel with 15 laps to go. As competitors began to drop off in the closing laps to either take on more fuel, or because they had run out, the Dollar General crew had made the right call and Sorenson had more than enough to cross the finish line in the sixth position.
“This was a great finish for this Dollar General team tonight, especially with the struggles we had with the handling,” Sorenson said after the race. “Even in practice we had a hard time with being loose. We thought the cooler, night-time temps would tighten things up, but it didn’t happen like that. Fortunately though we were able to conserve enough fuel there at the end and get the top-10 finish to take over the points lead. It really was a great night altogether for Turner Motorsports.”
Next Stop: The NASCAR Nationwide Series gets a rare weekend off next weekend but will head to Michigan International Raceway in two weeks. Mark Martin will return to the No. 32 Dollar General Chevy in the Alliance Truck Parts 250 on June 18.
Point Lead Comes With Top 10 Finish for Reed Sorenson at Kansas Speedway
#32 Dollar General Chevrolet
